Large deviations for Bernstein bridges

Bernstein processes over a finite time interval are simultaneously forward and backward Markov processes with arbitrarily fixed initial and terminal probability distributions. In this paper, a large deviation principle is proved for a family of Bernstein processes (depending on a small parameter ħħ which is called the Planck constant) arising naturally in Euclidean quantum physics. The method consists in nontrivial Girsanov transformations of integral forms, suitable equivalence forms for large deviations and the (local and global) estimates on the parabolic kernel of the Schrödinger operator.